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Wacky Wobblers

We have a new guest reviewer today - many of you will know him as funkoww from the Simpsons Collector Sector.  On occasion he's also known as Travis Oliver, and he likes more than just the World of Springfield - he likes Wacky Wobblers too!  Don't know what they are?  I'll let Travis explain...

Destined to be the next big hype (think Beanie Babies) Wacky Wobblers are posing to bring back the nostalgic dashboard nodder. Produced by Funko, Wacky Wobblers tend to portray pop culture icons that spread across generations. Some of their most popular creations include Mr. T, Sea Monkeys, and Smokey the Bear. For more information on Funko products you can check out their site at www.funko.com or my collectors site at www.wobble-world.com. Today I will be reviewing Funko’s new line of Wacky Wobblers that is set to ship on Febuarary 8th and will most likely be in stores a week or so after that. This line includes Lucky the Leprechaun, Little Lulu, Trix rabbit, and Howdy Doody.





Packaging - ****
When it comes to Wacky Wobblers one of their greatest assets I the box, it’s just as much a part of displaying your collection as the wobbler. In this line Funko has definitely not let us down. For Lucky and Trix we see pretty much the same design, Funko using the charaters respective cereal box designs as a base and then altering the backs with some fun Funko information disguised as nutritional information. This has been the trend with all of Funko’s cereal wobbler.

The Howdy Doody box is more of the classical Funko box with a history of Howdy on the back with a picture of his creator. This is a great piece that really helps you feel what time period Howdy is from.

In my opinion the Little Lulu box is one of the best Funko has done. It’s simple yet has great graphics. The box has a real retro feel that fits perfect with the character and the Wacky Wobbler concept.

Sculpting - ***
Funko always takes great detail in their sculpts and there is no exception here. The little Lulu is an amazingly done wobbler and will probably be one of my favorites for a long time. Her sculpt looks great and really beckons you to wobble her at every chance.

Lucky is another good sculpt but the proportions between his head and body seem to be a little off even for a wobbler. I also would have loved to have seen him holding one of his charms instead of a spoon, Maybe a marshmallow moon. 

Howdy is a great sculpt too but unfortunately suffers from the same problem as Lucky having a seemingly unproportional head. He also has the classic Funko pose of waving one hand, which while it’s been done seems to fit great for this character.

Trix is based on an earlier Trix toy and the transition to wobble seems to be a little rough. The pose makes the wobbler awkward and just doesn’t seem to fit the idea of a wobbler, not to mention it lends it’s self to a very unusual wobble point which I'll talk about later.

Paint - ***
The paint on all of these is great except for the fact that Lucky’s face seems to be a little to pink. Otherwise Funko’s care in detail once again is shown amazingly. The only other problem with the paint is that often when you buy your wobbler there will be paint marks on the front window of the box from the wobbler hitting it during transport. This rarely has any noticeable effect on the wobbler and is easily removable from the box window.

Articulation (wobbliness) - **
Since these figures don’t have any articulation I’m going to use this category to talk about how well they wobble and how well their wobble point seems to work.

Lulu’s wobble point is at the waist, but it has excellent action and is great to wobble. For a waist wobbler she provides tons of fun and is incredibly smooth

Lucky has all the same great qualities as Lulu with the same great action and wobble point.

Howdy also has the wobble point under his head but for some reason doesn’t seem to be as fun to wobble. He head seems to wobble a little awkward but it still has pretty good action.

Trix is by far the worst in this category. As I said before the wobbler was based on an old Trix toy. Unfortunately the toy only lent its self to having a wobble point at the waist. This causes Trix to have kind of a hula motion. While in some cases this is fine, for Trix the point is rigid and offers little action. Also it just doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the wobblers.

Value - **** (at $10.00) *** (at $13.00+)
These are a great value they are relatively inexpensive and are extremely durable (trust me, I’ve done tests) not to mention they just look great and are tons of fun.

Overall - 
Lulu ****

Lucky ***

Howdy ***

Trix ** ½

Overall this is another solid line from Funko. Little Lulu is definitely my favorite Wacky Wobbler so far and the rest of the figures make great additions to any collection or household period. Think about how fun it would be to have a Lucky in you house, then you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Where to Buy:
These are only available online and at stores that sell novelty products. Don’t try looking at your big name stores like TRU or Kmart cause you won’t find them. You might also want to try record shops in your area as it seems they tend to carry them a lot and if you live in LA you can visit Sparky’s, the biggest retailer of Funko merchandise.

The Rater:  
Travis Oliver runs one of the biggest Wacky Wobbler collector sites on the internet, www.wobble-world.com, he is also an administrator at the only Wacky Wobbler forum online. He also collects WOS figures and 12” action figures, with plans on collecting both the new He-Man and Muppets figures. You can often find him at www.simpsonscollectors.com under the name funkoww. For more information on Wacky Wobblers you can reference his site www.wobble-world.com or his partner site www.letsgetwacky.com.


Figure from the collection of Travis Oliver.

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